Baseball Plate Umpires

Video Transcript

BEN GRAHAM: All right. Let's take a look now at the responsibility of the plate umpire. Now, he is the head umpire on the field, generally, because he has to make all the calls. If there's a dispute, he has to mediate that dispute and he has to make the final decision. His primary responsibility is calling balls and strikes. If the ball is within the strike zone, obviously it's a strike. If it's outside of the strike zone, it's a ball. He has to keep track of those things. He'll have a little clicker in his hand that keeps track of balls and strikes as well as the number of outs in the inning. He also gets to dictate the pace of the game. If a batter is taking too long to warm up outside the batter's box, he can hurry him along. If the pitcher is taking too long or if there's a meeting between the pitching coach and the pitcher, he can break that up and keep that kind of moving. He also has the final say on fair or foul because from his vantage point, he can see both foul lines. He can see, generally, where the ball lands. He would generally defer to his field umpires unless he absolutely knows them to be wrong or saw otherwise, but he does have the final decision on things such as fair and foul and on home runs. He also has to watch the plate when there are plays at the plate. Sometimes these are some of the most violent plays in the game of baseball. When a runner is coming home from third and is about to slide into the catcher if he makes contact with the catcher to bowl him over, the umpire has to determine whether or not the catcher held onto the ball, whether or not he actually made the tag, whether or not the runner actually touched the plate. There's a variety of things that this umpire has to consider at any given time so it's not just an easy relaxing job that he has. He's got to be a general or a mediator for the entire field. He's got to know all the rules of the game of baseball. And while we're talking about it in a very basic, simple sense today, it is a very complex game with a very thick and intricate rule book for various situations. And the home plate umpire has to enforce all of those rules throughout the game of baseball so he's a very important non-player character.

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